Ukrainian commander Vladyslav Polskyi rescues two wounded soldiers from kill zone

August 26, 2026 at 07:55 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Ukrainian commander Vladyslav Polskyi drove 15 km through a mine- and drone-infested kill zone to rescue two wounded soldiers stranded after a Russian strike disabled their evacuation drone. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy awarded Polskyi the Hero of Ukraine medal on Aug. 24 for the Aug. 15 mission. The rescue highlighted the vulnerability of unmanned ground vehicles to Russian helicopter drones.

Key Facts

Vladyslav Polskyi, a 29-year-old junior lieutenant and former science teacher, rescued two wounded soldiers from another battalion on Aug. 15 in the Kharkiv region.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy awarded Polskyi the Hero of Ukraine medal during Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv on Aug. 24.
A Russian helicopter drone struck the unmanned ground vehicle evacuating the two soldiers, destroying its Starlink terminal and immobilizing it.
Polskyi drove his grey pick-up truck 15 km from his command post to the rescue site without a helmet or body armour.
Ukraine says it kills or wounds around 30,000 Russian soldiers a month, a figure Moscow dismisses as exaggerated.

The Rescue Mission

Polskyi watched the two wounded soldiers on a screen in his command post, located about 15 km from the battlefield. One soldier had crawled into a ditch and hidden in vegetation; the other lay helpless on the immobilized drone with his right foot dangling from the bone. Polskyi sped toward the men in his grey pick-up truck, planning how to load them onto the flatbed. Surveillance drone footage from Polskyi's unit, the 475th Assault Regiment, shows his truck hurtling down a gravel road before turning and rapidly reversing toward the damaged drone. Reuters verified the exact location of the rescue using the full-length footage.

Battlefield Technology Limits

Kyiv's forces have been using remote-controlled unmanned vehicles to limit human involvement in dangerous tasks like evacuations inside the kill zone. Russia's successful attack cast light on the limits of the relatively slow and rudimentary vehicles. The Russian drone knocked out the land drone's Starlink terminal, severing the link with its pilot and leaving it immobilized. Ukraine has also made widespread use of attack drones on the battlefield, and says it is killing or wounding around 30,000 Russian soldiers a month. Both sides frequently post videos of drones hunting down each other's soldiers in the kill zone.